This chart shows that recent discussions surrounding the minimum wage are in line with 1968’s minimum wage, which was the peak of minimum wage. For a fantastic, very in-depth review of the minimum wage debate, click through the image (or the link below).

With a gain of 200,000 jobs per month, the US labor market will return to the previous peak employment level in three months. With a more modest 125,000 jobs per month it will take almost two years, but this is still an attainable gap.

The level of affordability for the most expensive US metros for housing has dropped dramatically in the past year, especially in San Francisco. In San Francisco, less than 15% of houses are for sale at prices a middle class family can afford.

During the worst days of the recession, the margin of error for the BLS’ seasonal total nonfarm payroll report was twice the normal rate: up to 170,000, which is nearly the size of the value for a number of months. The recession caused this error of seasonality by assuming that people who lost their jobs over the recession winter were normal, seasonal job losses and perpetuated that for the past three years–the number of years’ worth of data used to track seasonality.